World-class hockey official assisting Aberdeen players

August 08, 2007|By John Papendick, American News Sports Editor

At 26, Leah Wrazidlo has skated to the top of hockey officiating in lightning-like fashion. The world-class official from Duluth, Minn., is sharing her story with and developing hockey players this week at an Aberdeen hockey camp. It is a story of overcoming adversity to stay connected with the game she loves. Wrazidlo grew up in Duluth playing bantam hockey with boys. She went from an average player on the boys' team to a standout on the high school girls' team that she and her friends helped develop in Duluth. The University of Minnesota-Duluth recruited her to play Division I hockey for the Bulldogs. There, she returned to average player status. In two years - after she and her teammates had won the first women's national championship in 2001 - she lost her spot on the team to talented newcomers. She went from meeting President George W. Bush in the White House with her national champion teammates to teamless in a matter of weeks. “I was pretty upset about it for the first couple of months,” said Wrazidlo. “My coaches told me they no longer had a spot for me. That was hard for me to swallow.” The new Minnesota-Duluth coaching staff had success and experience on the international level, and they were able to draw some of the best recruits in the world to play for the Bulldogs. Wrazidlo was a hard-working player who did not have the talent to compete with her international teammates. The Duluth women's hockey team won three straight national titles and went 108-19-13 in the years Wrazidlo was at Minnesota-Duluth - she was on the team those first two years before being cut. Wrazidlo soon adjusted to her non-player status and fell into a job as a youth hockey official. “I needed a job that was flexible while I finished school,” she said. She was eventually talked into going to a hockey officials camp, which she thought at first was a waste of her time. However, she learned a lot and it started her on her path of officiating. Wrazidlo is now on track to officiate women's hockey at the 2010 Olympic Games. “But a million things can happen on the international scene between now and then,” said Wrazidlo, who is also hoping to be selected to work the 2008 women's World Championships in China. “Things that are completely out of my control so I'll just have to wait and see what happens. But I have had some amazing experiences thanks to USA Hockey.” She also is now a regular-season and playoff official for the prestigious women's Division I Western Collegiate Hockey Association and is a regular on the international women's hockey scene. She also works Division III women's college games, boys' and girls' high school and youth games in Minnesota. She also helps train officials at hockey camps in places such as Lake Placid, N.Y. “I don't really have an end goal,” Wrazidlo said of her officiating career where she has made friends with officials worldwide. “It seems like whenever I have accomplished something, another door has opened up for me. So even if my officiating career ended tomorrow, I'd be fine with it because I have already done so much more with it than I could have ever imagined.”